It’s no secret that a career as a travel nurse comes with a LOT of advantages. As a travel nurse you get to travel the country and go somewhere new every few months or you can “travel” locally if staying close to home is more your vibe. You have full control over your schedule and you’ll likely make more money as a travel nurse than as a staff nurse. There’s a plethora of benefits in the travel nursing industry we could go on and on about, but let’s talk about one in particular:
Travel Nursing Makes Clinicians Better at Their Jobs
While it’s probably not the driving factor for most clinicians who switch from staff to travel nursing, it’s still very much an added benefit. Travel nursing can (and usually does) have a significant impact on the careers of healthcare clinicians making them better at their jobs in several ways.
Here are 4 ways switching from staff to travel nursing can improve a clinician’s skills and abilities:
Travel Nursing Advantages: Exposure to Diverse Patient Populations
As a staff nurse, you work in a single geographic area, which means you’re likely to see similar patient populations day in and day out. But as a travel nurse you get the unique opportunity to work in different cities, states, and facilities. The constant change in the workplace will result in an increased exposure to a diverse range of patient populations. This will broaden your understanding of different health conditions and cultural backgrounds. It will also enhance your ability to provide quality care to patients of various backgrounds and conditions, and ultimately help to improve patient care and outcomes.
Travel Nursing Advantages: Adapting to New Environments
One thing almost all travel nurses have in common is the ability to adapt. For every new assignment you take you’ll need to get acclimated (and quickly) to new environments and coworkers. You’ll have to learn new policies, procedures, and technology. The more you travel the more you will learn how to adapt, a personal and professional skill that will serve you well. New environments will become less intimidating and you will be able to better manage unexpected situations. Adaptability isn’t a skill we’re all born with but it is one that can be developed over time!
Just think – one assignment you might find yourself at a high-level trauma center, fine-tuning your skills and learning to think on your feet, while your next assignment might take you to a quaint small town, with a less-populated facility where you can focus on your skills in bedside decorum. There are endless possibilities and places for you to explore, with each one offering you the chance to learn and adapt to something new.
Travel Nursing Advantages: Collaboration with Different Healthcare Professionals
Another way travel nursing makes clinicians better is working with different healthcare professionals. When you’re frequently working in new facilities with different healthcare teams you have opportunities to learn new skills, techniques, and expose yourself to ideas you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to.
In turn, every time you find yourself in a new environment, you can be the one to bring in your newfound knowledge, skills, and techniques to share with others. This can improve best practices in workplaces and help to elevate the overall quality of care. You’ll also be growing your network of healthcare professionals which can help to broaden your industry knowledge and career opportunities in the future
Travel Nursing Advantages: Learning New Life Skills
The challenges of travel nursing require clinicians to navigate new environments, unfamiliar patients, and unexpected situations. In fact, it is facing these challenging situations that you will build up a lot of useful life skills. You’ll become a better communicator and sharpen your critical thinking and problem-solving skills. You will become better equipped to manage difficult situations, whether in your day-to-day life or while at work. Basically, you’ll be a “resilient as hell, problem-solving machine”, or something more elegant. We can already envision that beautiful new resume . . .
Speaking of your resume – here’s our free travel nurse resume template, just for you!
Please note: We are not actually advising you to put “resilient as hell, problem-solving machine” on your resume*
Don’t Get it Twisted
Now we’re not saying travel nurses are “better” than staff nurses, but we are saying there are certain aspects of travel nursing that lend themselves to improving a clinician’s abilities. Not only does traveling allow you to experience different environments, patients, and healthcare professionals, but it can help you develop new skill sets to improve you both personally and professionally.
Like we mentioned at the beginning of this post, enhanced clinical skills might not necessarily be a “driving factor” for why clinicians are making the switch from staff to travel nursing, but it certainly carries some weight in the overall job satisfaction travelers experience. Other similar advantages to travel nursing that aren’t as widely talked about include professional growth, decreased risk of burnout, job security, and less workplace drama. So, while there are a lot of widely known benefits to travel nursing, there might be a few unexpected ones that surprise you in a positive way.
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